Aston Villa v Newcastle Post Match Thread

[p_ad]

Great  and much needed win utv

[Allan C]

It’s time to call time on Wesley – the worst Villa striker I’ve seen in over 40 years.

So you think Bowery, Helenius, Balaban, McAvennie, Hogan, Penrice, McCormack, Gestede were all better for us? And that's just off the top of my head.

Exactly this  there’s been some shockers over the years but Gestede is the worst player I’ve seen in a Villa shirt. I think Wesley did alright tonight

[eamonn]

Surprised by the plaudits for Guilbert. Thought he was awful in the first half, constantly playing his man (their tricky winger) rather than the ball. I didn't notice him much in the second half so maybe he did his job well.

[garyfouroaks]

15th, a third of the way through the season, above Everton and West Ham. I will settle for that.


We are only three points off Man U and Spurs, and have won as many games as fifth placed Wolves. Only six teams have scored more goals than us. There is plenty to be positive about.


Grealish was pivotal tonight . The grapevine suggests that if Eriksen leaves Spurs, Jack will be their target. He is to us as Zaha is to Palace, irreplaceable. Whatever his transfer value, he is worth the £130m that a PL place represents to us.


In the summer we bought a new team. Some have worked, others less so. Wesley still hints at being a force, but somehow is struggling to assert himself. I do not favour many, if any, transfer window purchases, Smith's priority must be to eke the most out of what he has already bought. At Christmas, relegation is still a possibility. The calibre of player we can buy with PL status retained will be better.


Our tactic of inviting Andy Carroll for a night out on Broad St after the game worked well. Tonight was our first home performance in which we were the better side, and secured the win comfortably. No late jitters / collapse.

[RichardBatchelor]

I thought he wasn’t great going forward (though never stopped trying) but excellent defensively for me. Guilbert, that is 7/10 here and that will do.

[Des Little]

Wes needs a goal. Strikers aren’t measured by playing well, it’s all about scoring and that chance was on a plate and the game is over. He needs to find a ruthless side to his game, because there will be times when misses like that will cost us big time.

[Steve67]

What was the attendance please?

Good win.  Well done Villa.  no-one had a poor game imo.  We deserved to win.

[CT Villan]

I am almost certain Almiron was wearing a Villa shirt underneath his barcode shirt

Should have been more, but it's nice to see us not wobble from 70 mins on.

At least poor old, never accepted, Brucie has plenty of opportunities to console himself with kebabs on the way home.

[PeterWithesShin]

DS Sky interview

[saunders_heroes]

Cracking win. That’s all!

[paul_e]

Excellent result and a fully deserved one. I appreciated that Wesley dropped deep at times to successfully link the play up but I'm still not convinced. He never looks like scoring and that's a big problem.

Heaton, Grealish, Hourihane, Guilbert and El Ghazi were all excellent. McGinn, Mings and Luiz not so much. Luiz needs to stop dawdling on the ball, losing the ball sloppily like that against teams like ManUre and Chelsea will lead to us conceding.

We need to build on this and pick up points away, hopefully we can sneak a surprising result or two starting Sunday.

On the bold bit I'm not sure. I said in the summer that I thought this team would net 50-60 goals and with 19 from roughly the first 3rd of the season we're bang on track for that. We're not reliant on Wesley for goals, we've scored more than anyone else in the bottom half of the league, so you have to judge him on his overall game. At times that has been disappointing because his head has gone down and he's not battled enough. Tonight was totally different, he pressed, he chased back and he made a pain in the arse of himself. If he puts in that level of effort every week he'll prove himself invaluable to this team and the goals will come.

On Newcastle, that was a very familiar performance to how we played away, sit deep, let them have the ball and try to catch them on the break then put in 5-10 minutes of 100% effort after half time trying to sneak one before settling back into the same defensive shape. as a team they were really poor but in a sea of shit Almiron still managed to look out of his depth. He was fucking dire and I'd go so far as to say it was one of the (if not the) worst performances I've ever seen against us.

[adrenachrome]

Villa Views
@VillaViews_
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16m
We've now won more games than we did in the season we went down! #avfc

[ROBBO]

Yes Wesley did put the effort in and he is a big unit but that isn't enough is it. I hope he can improve because he didn't come cheap. We all saw how we stay up this season keep Jack Grealish fit, he was the best afield by far and the difference between the two sides, at least the penny seems to have dropped because he played a more forward role tonight.
Delighted and relieved at the end because we all saw that we can compete at this level and with the financial power of the owners and a good manager the future is ours.

[bob rowe]

The goals.

[PeterWithesShin]

A talking potato

He actually says "roll wor sleeves up"!